Keywords
Mode-locked semiconductor lasers, multiwavelength lasers, semiconductor dynamics
Abstract
External cavity semiconductor mode-locked lasers can produce pulses of a few picoseconds. The pulses from these lasers are inherently chirped with a predominant linear chirp component that can be compensated resulting in sub-picosecond pulses. External cavity semiconductor mode-locked lasers can be configured as multiwavelength pulse sources and are good candidates for time and wavelength division multiplexing applications. The gain medium in external cavity semiconductor mode-locked lasers is a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), and passive and hybrid mode-locked operation are achieved by the introduction of a saturable absorber (SA) in the laser cavity. Pump-probe techniques were used to measure the intracavity absorption dynamics of a SA in an external cavity semiconductor mode-locked laser and the gain dynamics of a SOA for the amplification of diverse pulses. The SOA gain dynamics measurements include the amplification of 750 fs pulses, 6.5 ps pulses, multiwavelength pulses and the intracavity gain dynamics of an external cavity multiwavelength semiconductor mode-locked laser. The experimental results show how the inherent chirp on pulses from external cavity semiconductor mode-locked lasers results in a slow gain depletion without significant fast gain dynamics. In the multiwavelength operation regime of these lasers, the chirp broadens the temporal pulse profile and decreases the temporal beating resulting from the phase correlation among wavelength channels. This results in a slow gain depletion mitigating nonlinearities and gain competition among wavelength channels in the SOA supporting the multiwavelength operation of the laser. Numerical simulations support the experimental results.
Notes
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Graduation Date
2006
Semester
Fall
Advisor
Delfyett, Peter
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
College
College of Optics and Photonics
Department
Physics
Degree Program
Optics
Format
application/pdf
Identifier
CFE0001359
URL
http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0001359
Language
English
Length of Campus-only Access
None
Access Status
Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)
STARS Citation
Archundia-Berra, Luis, "External Cavity Multiwavelength Semiconductor Mode-locked Laser Gain Dynamics" (2006). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1020.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/1020